Maricopa County cannot be healthy if the region’s economy is weak. Maricopa County government can’t meet its commitments to justice, public safety, public health and transportation if its revenues are not stable and solid year after year. Clearly, stable public budgets depend on brisk sales tax revenues and rising home values, which in turn, hinge on a healthy, robust and stable economy. Economists now tell us that Arizona’s economy has been overly dependent on housing construction, financial services and population growth.

Maricopa County cannot solve the state’s economic problems by itself. Instead, it can use its leverage and talent to achieve targeted goals in concert with its private and non-profit economic development partners. These goals include increasing the proportion of export-manufacturing jobs and raising per-capita income levels here.

FY 2011-2015 Strategic Goals:

Click on goal to get more details about that goal.

Strategic Goal #1: By 2015, the share of employment in base or export industries, as measured by the percentage of jobs in high-tech manufacturing in the Greater Phoenix metro area, will increase to 3.2% of total employment in Maricopa County.

Strategic Goal #2: By FY2015, the County’s burden on taxpayers, as measured by total County tax revenues as a percentage of personal income, will be less than 0.8%, a reduction of 2.4% from the FY2010 level.

Strategic Goal #3: By 2015, Maricopa County per capita personal income will be 97.5% or more of per capita personal income for the United States as a whole.